Anyone going to DragonCon this year in Atlanta?

[zyanitevp]

Welcome to the boards! We would welcome you as an MA!!

[Jorel]

Wife and I have talked about going but I think it will be a few years before we get there considering we live in WI.

[The Galactus Kid]

I've been wanting to get down there for the past few years but it hasn't happened yet.

[cyber-yukongil v2.5]

nope, that means going to Atlanta, and I reserve those tests of my patience for truly important purposes.

[Daniel Stoker]

BBQ?


Daniel Stoker

[cyber-yukongil v2.5]

that is one...

[cyber-yukongil v2.5]

that is true. In my part of the state, it is nothing but transplants thanks to the Air Force Base and is home to some of the rudest, condescending jerks I've ever had the displeasure to meet. Go a little bit in either direction though to a "more" southern town and the people turn into caricatures of the southern bell and gentlemen. Lots of "yes sir, no sir" "yes ma'am, no ma'am" "sweeties" "thank you greatly's" and what not. Mostly though, I avoid Atlanta for the traffic, seems like they are always doing construction up there and I have much better things to do with my time than sit in 105 degree heat and watch the asphalt sizzle. Plus, the older I get, the more I find that I hate more and more big cities.

I went with my wife to a medical conference in Atlanta last year and I seriously almost rage-punched the desk clerk at our hotel for the audacity of trying to serve me a $5 bottle of water in my room and before that seeing the $12 three cups of coffee pot off of their room service menu...or maybe I'm just cheap, I dunno.

[bielmic]

The funny thing about Atlanta is it not unlike any other city that I have been to, the rest of the state well that can be something else. And I have lived here most of my life. Atlanta and most of the surrounding suburbia is filled with transplants. If and when we do get a winter storm that shut down the roads a lot of the people who get stuck out on them are northerners. They say things like "I know how to drive in stuff like this." What they don't know is it all turns into ice and I don't care who you are or what you drive. All you do is spin your tires and have funny videos of you denting up your car posted on youtube.

It is because the transplants expect the local government to have a lick of common sense and prepare at least partly for those things even if they only happen occasionally instead of being gobsmacked by 1" of snow turning to ice and shutting down whole portions of the state for days. For those not in the know, Atlanta got around 1-2" of snow a few years back and it shut down THE BUSIEST AIRPORT in the world for over a day because they have less plows (converted from garbage trucks) than fingers on a hand mangled by a wood chipper. The money lost for the airport during that single day of activity would likely have paid for doubling the fleet and years worth of occasional maintenance during unused seasons... but they simply "hoped" instead of prepared at the busiest airport in the world. In their defense, largely the entire state government did the same. Schools here close down for days routinely with 1" of snow. My days of walking through 8-10 inches of fresh snow to grade school with only a single snow day in my childhood (because of -20 F or worse temps with wind chill and NOT the accompanying snow) color my opinions on that. I didn't have to walk uphill both ways though in my old man rant as I grew up in the upper midwest without said hills.

The transplants from the north expect the government to have SOME SORT of contingency plan for dealing with light dustings of snow which is largely not the case in the south. Most of the people I've known who did get dinged up were dinged up by locals who didn't know how to drive in the snow despite having large trucks that they go mudding with since childhood. I will however grant that most locals stay how during the 2-3 days the state gets shut down with 1" of snow... but only after they make a run to the grocery store to buy up every single gallon of milk and loaf of bread as if the end times were nigh. I made the mistake of going to the grocery store the day after my first snow fall here and the shelves were empty of perishable goods. You'd find shelves better stocked on an episode of the Walking Dead than on an Atlanta grocery shelf post 1" of snow.

Even a light winter dusting in the south is an eye opening experience for transplants the first time they encounter it down here.

[bielmic]

that is true. In my part of the state, it is nothing but transplants thanks to the Air Force Base and is home to some of the rudest, condescending jerks I've ever had the displeasure to meet. Go a little bit in either direction though to a "more" southern town and the people turn into caricatures of the southern bell and gentlemen. Lots of "yes sir, no sir" "yes ma'am, no ma'am" "sweeties" "thank you greatly's" and what not.

I've found that it is largely a superficial form of niceties. In the north, you get silence from a store counter clerk you don't know or maybe a hello from one at a business you frequent. In the south, you get a "How is your day, sir?" with likely a "Good, great to hear!" before you can actually respond but if you give an honest opinion they're clueless on how to react. I made the mistake of saying "Not so good..." to my local coffee barista on a particularly bad day for myself and she was completely flabbergasted by not getting an equally superficial response of "Fine, how are you doing?". This isn't a dig on southerners but they're no more likely to help someone in actual need than anyone anywhere else as a general rule and the actual response differs from person to person just like anywhere else in the US. The only difference is that there is a superficial top layer of politeness that you don't usually see "up north" where eye contact between strangers is much less frequent and a sign you're about to get mugged or flirted with.

[cyber-yukongil v2.5]

they may not be looking for an in depth conversation about your day, but even that superficial layer of politeness is quite startling when you are used to the opposite. Apart from that, yes people are people and are as likely to help you as not as anywhere else, but all the little niceties go a long way.

[silvermoon383]

I'll be there, but I'm not a Rifts player so I doubt we'd have much in common.

[Acid0philus]

Dragon-Con '15. A friend of mine in Illinois always makes the pilgrimage, and another friend of mine living in Hampton, Virginia is coming, as well. He's bringing his lady-friend from Rhode Island, and I hope my girlfriend in Texas comes, too. Gonna try to create a unit patch for us, so we can begin making cosplay uniforms.

I'm hoping to assemble a nice group of NEMA Peacekeepers or CS Military.